Dear church,

The apostle Paul told the Corinthian church, “Take heed.” This is not language we use very often today. To “take heed” means we listen and we pay attention. If we were to tell someone to “take heed,” we would do so when we want that person to be careful or to wake up or to change course.

In driving Independence Pass, I have noticed there is not a single sign along that route that says, “Take heed.” In all those winding miles of narrow two-lane road, not once does the highway department urge drivers to “take heed.” It seems like it would be a good idea, especially at the road’s narrowest points, where just over the edge is a potential fall of hundreds of feet and certain death at the bottom.

I suppose the highway department opted not to install “Take heed” signs because they aren’t necessary. After all, the danger on that road is quite obvious to any driver or passenger. No one could be blind to that kind of risk.

But the apostle Paul was not writing to people who could see the danger around them. “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” These were people who were certain of their standing before God. But they were unaware of the danger that was lurking all about them. They could not see it.

I do not believe Paul would have us to live in perpetual fear of losing our salvation. But it is clear that he would have us live with clear-eyed realism about the spiritual hazards in the world.

If the Hebrew people could pass through the Red Sea, follow the cloud of God’s presence through the wilderness, drink water that emerged from the hardness of rock, and eat bread that fell from heaven – if they could do all of that and recognize the saving provision of God in the midst of it – and then still fall into idolatry, sexual immorality, and entitlement, then so could the Christians in Corinth. (See Exodus 17; 32; Numbers 21; 25.)

The danger may be in not being able to see the danger. And hence Paul said, “Take heed.”

We are free in Christ. Filled with the Holy Spirit, we are given discernment about things good and evil. Wisdom from above fills our minds. Our hearts are being broken loose by the power of God from the encrusted ways of this world.

And yet, demons still exist, and selfishness and pride are never far off, and the temptation to sexual immorality and to the putting of worldly things above Jesus Christ remains very real. Idolatry is still a threat. And the Corinthian Christians were blind to these dangers, and they were driving ever so close to the edge of the cliff.

“Take heed.”

To take heed of a situation means we try as we can to get outside of ourselves and to view things from a larger perspective. We try to grasp the overall view and to uncover the things that lie hidden. And one of the things that we may find as we take heed is that we are not doing all to the glory of God. We may find we are eating and drinking and doing things with some other end in mind.

The Corinthian Christians were consumed with their own version of spirituality and their own rights and their own freedoms. They had stopped recognizing that everything they had in Christ was a gift – given to them by God through Paul and Apollos and Barnabas and the apostles. The Corinthian Christians thought they could do anything they wanted and that there would be no danger in that.

The Corinthian Christians were certain – very certain – that they had achieved some sort of spiritual superiority on earth that enabled them to participate unscathed in the worship of demons. There was no chance any harm could come of it.

And at the same time, the Corinthian Christians were so consumed with their own spirituality that they had forgotten about the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ. They had forgotten what it means to love one another in the church. And their selfish actions were doing harm to the body of Christ.

And the “fall” was, perhaps, not that far away.

Paul’s overriding concern was that believers do all to the glory of God, that they give no offense to Jew or Greek or to the church. This means that Christians do all they can to build up their fellow believers and the church that Christ is building. And sometimes that means not seeking our own advantage. Sometimes that means giving up our rights.

When we “take heed,” we might see these things.

The other night, a car tumbled 500 feet down an embankment on the backside of Independence Pass. It occurred at a hairpin turn. No one saw the mangled car at the bottom of the hill until late morning on the following day. Hundreds of cars drove by the spot where that vehicle went over the edge – all of them oblivious to the near-tragedy that occurred there and to the two people clinging to life in that car below.

“Take heed,” Paul wrote. Maybe the message for us today is to slow down in order to pay attention to the dangers that lurk on the road ahead of us. Maybe the message is to slow down in order to consider the way in which we are driving and the aim of our eating and drinking and doing “all things.” Maybe the message is to slow down in order to consider the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We can simply keep driving as we have been. Or we can “take heed.”

Chris

Dear church,

We love our rights. Our culture talks a lot about “rights” these days. Some people find their rights are being infringed upon. Little imagination is needed to find examples of these.

Our rights are important. They were important to Paul. Paul had his own rights within the church. He had his rights as an apostle – as one who had seen the resurrected Christ and who had been given a ministry to preach the gospel.

But Paul did something many people could not fathom doing today: Paul did not claim his rights. He didn’t use them to his advantage. For instance, he had a right to earn his living from preaching the gospel, but he didn’t demand it. In fact, he spurned this right.

What kind of person does this? What kind of person doesn’t claim a valid right and the benefits that come from it?

This is an interesting teaching because it pokes holes in a common mindset that we have as Americans and church members. We appreciate our rights as citizens of this country and as members of our church. But Paul wrote sometimes it is better not to claim our rights.

I recall when Paul was planting a church in the Roman colony of Philippi and was mistreated by the authorities there (Acts 16). Paul could have done himself a favor by notifying those authorities he was a Roman citizen. Roman citizens had rights. But Paul didn’t make any claims to those rights. He allowed himself to be mistreated for a time.

What kind of person does this?

Paul did it because he saw a bigger picture. Perhaps he saw the church in Philippi needed to see an example of proper suffering for the faith. Perhaps he saw an opportunity to evangelize the local jailer or the other inmates. Perhaps he saw the church would be better protected once the local leaders realized the big mistake they had made.

In any event, a larger picture was in view, and the church was at the center of it. Paul surrendered his rights for the sake of the gospel.

This was his way. If something was going to assist the gospel in being heard by more people, Paul was going to do that thing. If that meant giving up his right to some personal benefit, Paul was going to give up that right.

“We endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.”

Paul was not making a blanket statement encouraging Christians to give up every right they have. Paul, himself, did at times claim his rights as a Roman citizen. But when it came to the church, and when it came to the gospel, Paul was willing to give up just about anything if it meant more people could come into the kingdom of God.

This puts a different spin on some of the attitudes we can have as it relates to our lives in the world and in the church. Sometimes, we get offended when we feel our rights being threatened. Sometimes, we can think our rights are more important than just about anything else.

Paul would say that is not true. The most important thing, Paul would say, is that the gospel moves forward. “I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.”

We should be reminded of Jesus Christ, whom Paul wrote about in his letter to the Philippian church – the same place where Paul was so badly mistreated. Jesus is God himself. But, Paul wrote, Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6-7).

This was the ultimate giving up of one’s rights for the sake of someone else. He gave up his rights in the fullest sense when he died on the cross for our sins. Jesus is our lead example. And Paul followed suit. For them, the gospel was all that mattered.

In the end, the themes of selfishness and proper priorities bubble to the top. A selfish man or woman doesn’t care about the needs of others and instead pursues his or her rights above all else. But as Christians, we can’t lose sight of what’s really important.

Think about this: If someone were to slap you on the cheek for no reason, what are your rights in that moment? You would have the right to take that person to court and maybe even have that person thrown in jail. It’s your right.

But when Jesus said, “if someone slaps  you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also,” was he not commanding us to give up our right to retaliate? (Matthew 5:39). And when Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” was he not commanding us to give up our right to be angry and bitter with those who mistreat us? (Matthew 5:44).

What’s the point of this? It’s so that we may model the love of God (Matthew 5:45). When we forgive, love, and refuse to retaliate, we give up our right to live as the world would allow us to live. And there is good news in that.

Paul wrote, “I do not run aimlessly.” Paul had a purpose in everything he did. His wasn’t a thoughtless submission. He wasn’t weak when it came to his rights as an apostle. No, he simply could see what really was important – that people somehow and in some way hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved.

The next time you feel your rights are being infringed – either in the world or in the church – consider how important those rights are in the eternal scheme of things. Are there certain rights you ought to surrender for the sake of the gospel?

Chris

Dear church,

The Corinthian Christians must have asked Paul about whether it was OK to eat meat that had been offered as sacrifices to idols. This was a tricky situation for the new believers in Jesus Christ.

They professed there was no God but one. But in Corinth, animal sacrifices were being offered up continually to false gods. In fact, there was a good chance any meat available at banquets or at the markets likely had been offered in sacrifice to one of these false gods. If you wanted to eat meat or to participate in the normal social life in Corinth, you would have to settle any of your qualms about meat sacrificed to idols.

Of course, Christians also knew idols weren’t anything special and false gods were just that – false. And Christians wouldn’t have participated in this false worship. And so it was perfectly reasonable to eat that meat with a clear conscience. It was just meat after all. What other people – pagans – thought about it was up to them. The Christian was just looking for a good meal.

Other Christians likely had a hard time bringing themselves to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. It strained their consciences to do so. By eating it, weren’t they in some way participating in that idol worship?

On both sides of this debate within the church, people thought they were right. Those who thought it OK to eat meat offered to false gods probably thought they knew better. They had knowledge. And they probably considered those who weren’t eating that meat to be snuffing the fun out of life.

They might have been saying to them, “Go ahead and eat it. You know an idol is not anything. There is only one God. Don’t be such a fundamentalist! All of us possess knowledge.”

It is true. “All of us possess knowledge.” But there was something more at stake here, and Paul wanted to draw that out.

Paul said this kind of “knowledge” that some of the Corinthians Christians were talking about is a knowledge that “puffs up.” That is, it makes people arrogant. It makes them think they know it all. It makes them belittle their brothers and sisters in Christ who were thinking about things differently.

Indeed, knowledge can puff us up. But love, Paul said, “builds up.” Love looks in a different direction. Instead of standing with our arms crossed with all of our knowledge and looking down on others, love causes us to look out for the needs of others. Knowledge might cause us to tear another person down. Love looks for ways to encourage others and to keep them from hitting snags in their lives.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

It is not uncommon in a church for disagreements to emerge. Good Christian people can find themselves on different sides of church discussions. Some are convinced their knowledge is far superior than that of the other side. And these people wonder why others just can’t see the light.

And the fact of the matter is these knowledgeable people may be right. But that’s not the most important thing, Paul told the Corinthians. The overriding principle is that “love builds up.”

A person who is convinced of his or her own “rightness” can do a lot of damage to others. Instead, we ought to be thinking about what we can give up in order to maintain harmony within the church and, just as importantly, to help others grow in their faith. Perhaps I can sacrifice my right to being “correct” and to win the argument so that I can help someone else in his or her faith.

This kind of “knowledge” Paul was talking about led to selfishness. It was demanding its own way. Meanwhile, Paul will have a lot more to say about love later in this letter. Suffice it to say here that love is inherently outward-focused, seeking the good of others at the expense sometimes of ourselves.

Chris

Dear church,

Paul provided us some very practical advice about marriage. The Corinthians were interested in this topic, asking the apostle his thoughts about what appears to have been a controversial position: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

I wonder if the church was seeking out Paul’s thoughts on this subject because they knew him to be a single and celibate man. In every Christian community, there are some who hold more rigorous ideas than others about matters of the flesh, like food, drink, and sex. We’ve seen Paul address these issues in Romans and now in 1 Corinthians. And like with the controversies about food and drink, Paul redirects attention away from the physical activity of sex to the proper attitudes one should have about it.

Sex within marriage is a holy thing. It is a good thing. Within the marriage relationship, men and women have rights over each others’ bodies. Those who think Paul is a misogynist should read this chapter. Wives have as much of a right over their husbands’ bodies as men have over their wives’ bodies.

The important thing to Paul was peace in the marriage relationship – and sex can be a great peace-maker in marriage.

But Paul is well-known in his personal preference for singleness. He was a single man, and he knew well he could seek out the ministry of God’s kingdom with greater freedom because of his singleness. All married couples know about the additional concerns they carry around with them because of the needs of their spouses and children.

But it’s not a sin to marry. And single people are not second-class citizens. In fact, Paul said it’s a gift to be able to live as a married person, and it’s a gift to be able to live in singleness.

Paul also was an opponent of divorce. If married couples separate for a season, it should be with an eye toward reconciling sometime soon. Only in the case of the death of a spouse is remarriage explicitly endorsed by Paul – but again, he wrote, remaining single is probably better.

Even a Christian who finds him or herself married to a non-Christian ought to remain in the marriage relationship. This probably was a common circumstance in the early years of the church as people came to Christ as individual believers and as their spouses may not have followed suit.

But a believer has a good opportunity of bringing conversion to his or her spouse – with patience and loving behavior.

Paul also wrote specifically about the circumstances in Corinth – and across the Mediterranean world. Trying times had arrived or were coming, perhaps because of the coming fall of Jerusalem and perhaps because of the coming persecutions against the church in the Roman Empire. It was better for people to remain as they were, and to not take on new anxieties in the midst of those difficulties.

As we consider the many pieces of instruction in this chapter, it is good to ponder what overriding principle was driving Paul’s thought process. What was Paul’s chief concern as he thought about being married and single and conjugal rights and the “present distress” and engaged couples burning with passion?

If it is any one thing, it must be the need for the Christian to remain as free as possible in order to devote himself or herself to God. Devotion to God’s kingdom remains paramount in Paul’s list of priorities.

A single person retains the utmost freedom to pursue the things of God. He or she is not shackled to worldly concerns. But a person who is married is free as well – if by being single that person would be overrun by sexual desire (desires now taken care of by the marriage).

And a Christian spouse is free to remain with his or her unbelieving spouse. And if that unbelieving spouse chooses to leave, the Christian spouse should not be bound over by guilt. In either case, the Christian is free to pursue the things of God instead of running against the grain all the time.

“God has called you to peace,” Paul wrote. Perhaps that is it – the central theme of this passage. God has given us freedom to pursue our callings to married or single life in peace and not with a burdened conscience. We ought not to be burdened with constantly trying to stave off our sexual impulses by pursing a celibate life when that kind of life may not be within our gifting. And we shouldn’t be burdened by feeling the need to get married when that’s not the life to which we’ve been called.

The peace of God is in living out the lives in which we’ve been gifted. We must not forget, of course, what a holy life looks like. Paul doesn’t give ground to willy-nilly divorce or to sex outside the husband-wife relationship. We do have a commitment to God, and we do have a commitment to our spouses.

And we are called to peace and to a life of free worship of God. We should not put unnecessary obstacles in our own way.

Chris

Dear church,

The apostle Paul seemed surprised by the things going on in the Corinthian church. The church was dividing itself based on members’ preferences of church leaders. A church member apparently was sleeping with his step-mother, and the church was bragging about it. Church members were suing each other in court. Sexual immorality remained a problem in the church as some still seemed to be visiting prostitutes – and not even hiding that fact.

Paul asked a lot of rhetorical questions in Chapter 6. I think he was trying to evoke a response from them. He asked, “Do you not know …”

“… that the saints will judge the world?”

“… that we are to judge angels?”

“… that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?”

“… that your bodies are members of Christ?”

“… that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?”

“… that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

It almost is as if Paul was asking the Corinthian Christians – that he is asking us – “Do you not know who you are?”

The prophet Daniel received a vision from God and of God. And in that vision, he saw the kingdoms of the world being judged. And he saw who was entrusted with making those ultimate judgments. You might be surprised to find out that it was the people of God.

“And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Daniel 7:27).

A lot can be said about this passage, but suffice it say that judgment and dominion requires wisdom. And the people of God – indwelt by the Holy Spirit – are full of the wisdom needed to judge the world.

So why, Paul asked the Corinthian church, would we go seek out the judgment of the secular courts and the wisdom of the unrighteous, who have no standing in the church and who will not inherit the kingdom of God? On the Last Day, it will be the Christians who will judge the world on matters of much greater importance than petty lawsuits!

“Do you not know” who you are?

If we put our faith in Jesus Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit, something wonderful happens to us. And it is not just a theoretical “something.” It is very real and very lasting. Christians have all the wisdom they need to judge matters big and small. This is not to take anything away from people who are distant from the kingdom of God. But it is to note we ought never to disregard the gifts God has given us in Christ.

This passage reminded me of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). At some point, the prodigal son got hungry. He was feeding pigs, and the pigs’ food started looking really good to him.

And then the young man remembered who he was. He “came to himself,” Jesus said. Because of who he was – simply by being born to the father to whom he was born – the young man had everything he needed already. He just had to wake up and reach out his hand.

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ” … and “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” So why would we seek out secular wisdom when we have the full depth of the wisdom of God? And why would we seek out pleasure from prostitutes when we have something so holy and precious residing in our souls?

Don’t we know who we are? “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. … You are not your own, for you were brought with a price. So glorify God with your body.”

We ought not to forget who we are as children of God. We have everything we need. The task now is to trust in that.

Chris

Dear church,

This is another hard passage to our modern (or postmodern) ears. The apostle Paul commanded a church to kick a man out of the congregation.

“Let him who has done this be removed from among you,” Paul said. “You are to deliver this man to Satan.” There was to be a moment when the church secretary was to get out the membership spreadsheet and delete a man’s name from it.

And this wasn’t to be done quietly – in secret. The church leaders weren’t supposed to take the man aside and tell him privately not to come back. They were to bring this issue before the whole church – “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus …”

Churches through the centuries have done this very thing. And it probably is needless to say there is a right way and a wrong way to do something like this. The barring of a member of the church – maybe we can call it a “dis-membering” – can easily become a spectacle of self-righteousness among the leaders of the church.

But the task is laid before the church: “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.” The church is supposed to be distinct from the world. But in many cases, the world finds ways to creep into the life of the church. Not wanting to offend anyone, we refuse to confront our brothers and sisters in Christ who have fallen into sin.

I know I have been guilty at times of turning a blind eye to the sin of my brothers and sisters in Christ. And I am sure others have done the same with me. Whose business is it anyway?

Well, Paul would say it is the church’s business. “Anyone who bears the name of brother (or sister)” has an obligation to the church. Once a person enters into the family of God, that person subjects himself or herself to accountability by the church. “Is it not those inside the church whom you are the judge?”

This makes us uneasy.

I once was part of a church that cracked down on the pastor because he enjoyed playing the card game Rook with his friends. Isn’t this a bit too far – an unwarranted intrusion into a person’s personal life? I would say that it is. Again, the instruction from Paul here is a sensitive one, and it easily can go awry.

At the same time, some churches are willing to tolerate virtually any sin their members fall into. You can imagine those scenarios. We must welcome anyone into the church, but we cannot affirm sin. Christ died because of sin.

Paul’s concern was that the church should strive for holiness. He wasn’t calling the church not to associate with nonbelievers who commit sins. Rather, he was calling the church not to associate with people who claim to be Christians and who unrepentantly and unashamedly commit such sins.

There’s something to be said for sincerity and truth. “Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

We’re to purge the sin from our lives. We’re to strive ceaselessly toward perfection (even as we fail time and again). We strive toward perfection out of gratitude to Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us on the cross – a sacrifice that set us free from sin and death. Jesus doesn’t demand perfection. But I imagine he enjoys it when we honor him with our efforts.

So we get rid of the old leaven of sin – of malice and evil – and we break bread in the church with sincerity and truth. Sincerity means we are free from from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy. Things are as they appear. We are honest with one another. We live open lives and desire to hide nothing. Truth, of course, is the definition of Jesus Christ – the sinless Savior – who is way and the truth and the life (John 14:6).

How does our church do when it comes to living in sincerity and truth? How do you or I live in sincerity before our brothers and sisters in Christ? These are good questions to spend time today pondering.

Chris

Dear church,

In our culture, judgment is considered a bad thing. We are told it is not good to be judgmental of other people. No one is to judge another. Part of the problem is it makes people feel bad to be judged. There is something threatening about someone else peering into our lives and rendering a verdict.

Of course, the assumption is the judgment of another will be negative. When we sense others judging us, we assume they are seeing us in a poor light. It is assumed to be an unfavorable judgment.

We don’t want to feel bad about our lifestyle choices, and we don’t want to be seen in an unfavorable light by others. A lot of this distaste for being judged by others has to do with our feelings. We want to feel good about ourselves.

Of course, sometimes we are judged favorably by others. They are happy with us. And we are OK with that. It is the negative judgment that bothers us.

And all of this kind of judging is external to us. There also is an internal judging – where we issue decrees about ourselves. Our consciences can carry this out quite well, making us feel unworthy or inadequate. Some of us are good at judging ourselves.

So that’s enough to say that judgment in our culture is considered to be a bad thing – at least the negative kind, real or assumed, that makes us feel badly about ourselves.

Paul was not concerned with any human judgment, either from other people or himself. “It is a very small thing,” he said. It is a very small thing to be judged by people, even by the people of the Corinthian church where Paul spent 18 months ministering.

We don’t often consider it a very small thing when we are judged negatively by our close friends.

Paul went on to say he doesn’t even judge himself. He had a clear conscience, he said. “For I am not aware of anything against myself.” But even that didn’t matter. He still wasn’t going to give himself the all-clear. He wasn’t yet acquitted because his conscience was clear.

Paul was a man who pushed aside any judgment the world thrust upon him. And he was a man who ignored his own feelings about himself. There was only one Judge for Paul.

A day would come when a judgment upon Paul and his work would be rendered. The Lord would come. And when Jesus comes, the dark spots in our lives will be brought to light and the hidden purpose of our hearts will be laid bare.

There’s only one Judge.

It is easy in life to get consumed with what others think of us. It is easy to stress over perceptions. And it is easy to drown ourselves in self-condemnation. We gravitate toward judgment in one way or another. And Paul would say all of it is premature – whether we are down on ourselves or full of pride in our good deeds.

Paul makes it clear: Judgment Day will come. But he also implies our task now is simply to live out our lives as servants of the Lord and to leave the judging to Him. Jesus is the only one we seek to please.

And that is the rub, isn’t it? When we submit to the judgments of others, they become lords in our lives. But we are Christians. We only have one Lord.

We keep our eyes fixed on him.

Chris

Dear church,

There are times Christians fail to see the world as God would have them to see it. We are creatures of the world, after all, and its ways have crept into us. It is natural for us to act as the world acts and to see things as the world sees things.

And when good or bad things happen, we tend to look – as the world does – for the reason those good or bad things happen. First, we look for natural causes. Maybe the environment was just right for that good thing or that bad thing to happen. Or maybe some person was standing by to effect something positive or negative in that situation.

There is wonderment at the moment about the Grizzly Creek fire and how it started. It began next to the highway. Was it a cigarette butt cast out the window? Was it some piece of metal creating sparks on the pavement? The fire, we are certain, did not spontaneously generate itself.

And so this is how the Christian thinks as well. We look for natural causes, and we appreciate it when we find them.

But the gospel is different, Paul would remind us.

I once was at a Christian youth conference and overheard two youth workers talking about the growth of a church nearby. The church apparently had a new pastor. One youth worker asked the other, “Are people coming because of his preaching?”

I never heard the answer, but I remember the question. It has stuck with me for years. We should be happy whenever we find good preaching. In churches, good preaching can draw crowds – and that is a good thing. Good preaching can set the gospel free in a person’s life.

But when there is good preaching, the preacher tends to develop fans. And fandom, within the kingdom of God, is not a good thing. “For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human?”

This is how the world thinks about things. The church is founded and grows. Something must have caused it, and that cause must be a natural one. Some person made this happen. And it is natural for us to recognize that person.

Paul asked the believers in Corinth who were saying these “merely human” things – “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” Notice he didn’t ask “who” these fellows were. He wasn’t interested in their biographies or their talents or their personalities. Personhood wasn’t overly important in his question. No, Paul wanted to know “what” these men were.

Well, they were servants of God – servants who had jobs to do. Paul and Apollos were men who simply did the work God assigned to them – planting and watering – and then they stood back because it was God who produced the good thing that was happening. It is “only God who gives the growth.”

God creates the servants. And he creates them out of any old lump of clay he desires. God gifts them. God assigns them tasks. And God brings their work to fruition. God gives the growth.

Paul went on to write about what it is God was in the process of creating through the work of his servants. This was nothing less than the temple of God – the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. “For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 

It is a sweet reminder about what we are as a collection of believers in Jesus Christ. We are, first and foremost, a group of people who are holy. The church is the new dwelling place of God’s presence on earth. It no longer is a tabernacle carried along by the Jewish nation as it wandered in the desert, and it’s no longer a temple on a hill in Jerusalem.

No, the temple of God is a people – the church – and it is a holy and precious thing to God.

All of this is too much for a man or woman to create on his or her own. It was too much for Paul or Apollos or Peter or whoever. There is no purely natural cause for such a thing. And try as we might to find that natural cause – a chain dragging along behind a car on the highway or a gifted speaker drawing in the crowds – we will not find it as it relates to the church.

And so Paul was trying to get those church members in Corinth to stop looking at the church in the way the world would look at the church – and to start looking at it the way God would have them look at it. We should no longer be acting in the way the world acts or looking at things the way the world looks at them.

“For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all are yours …” 

If any good thing has come to us in the faith from a gifted preacher, or from a Christian friend, or from a faithful parent or grandparent – we must recognize this good thing is a gift from God to an undeserving sinner. God had given the Corinthian church – a really strange and rebellious church – a great gift in the form of servants willing to share the gospel. God gave the church Paul and Apollos and Cephas.

These men, these servants – “what” they are – are gifts. They belonged to the Corinthians. They belong to us. We don’t boast about them. We simply receive them as gifts – and thank God. “All are yours.”

And if they are ours, if we have received and accepted these gifts, we recognize the gifts bind us to the Giver. We belong to Another. We belong to Christ. “All are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

There are no so-called natural causes here. This life we live as Christians operates in the realm of divine gift. We receive daily the nourishment of God, which he sends to us in all sorts of ways, and we recognize what we’ve come to be – “in Christ.”

Chris

Dear church,

The wisdom of God can’t be received by everyone. It is beyond the grasp of some people. Paul wrote the “rulers of this age” could not figure it out. They did not understand.

For the mature Christian, however, the wisdom of God is pretty simple. It is Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Son of God lived a sinless life and died on a cross, paying the penalty for our sins, so that those who put their faith in him can stand in eternal righteousness before God. This is “Jesus Chris and him crucified.”

That is what the apostle Paul proclaimed, and that is what God had decreed before time began. The crucifixion of the Son of God would pave the way for salvation by faith alone, not by works.

We can explain this to some people. We can give them convincing arguments. We can show them the rationality of these thoughts. But, Paul wrote, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.”

We sometimes wonder why some people won’t accept the message of the gospel. We sometimes grieve over the fact special people in our lives consistently say “no” to Jesus Christ. We know it is not a lack of intellect that causes this rejection, and we know it is not lack of compassionate persuasion. Some just do not understand.

So what is the difference between one who hears and understand and one who hears and does not understand? Paul said it is “among the mature” that the wisdom of God is imparted. Well, who are the mature? What makes a man or a woman mature?

We may think of some of the aged Christians we have known in life. Surely, they are mature. They have seen the ebb and flow of this fallen world, and they’ve learned what to expect and not to expect. And they have witnessed countless times the things of God and can tell us in hushed tones how he has worked in their lives.

Paul would tell us, I suppose, that this is maturity at its finest. But maturity does not stop there. In another letter, Paul described the thought process of the mature person:

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies head, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way …” (Philippians 3:13-15a). 

Those who are mature do not consider they have reached the summit. They know there is more to learn and more to do. Those who are mature do not get stuck in the rut. They instead press forward to what God has for them in the future. They have hope, and they have their eyes and ears fixed on Jesus Christ.

Maturity, to Paul, is not to be pictured as an achievement. We don’t reach a plateau of maturity. Instead, maturity is in the hiking – whether we’re at the foot of mountain, just starting out, or somewhere higher up.

So the immature, perhaps, are those think they’ve reached perfection, who think there’s no place further to grow, and who don’t press on to know and follow Jesus Christ.

And so a newly baptized Christian can be mature. He or she is the one who receives the Spirit of God with open arms. And an elderly, educated atheist can be immature. That one does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. It’s not a matter of working harder. It’s simply a matter of being open to the working of the Holy Spirit. (The Spirit always is at work.)

And so we think about ourselves. We’re mature, are we not? We’ve heard and have received the wisdom of God and the message of “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

And yet, some of us are hard-headed. Some of us do linger in our ruts. We do not forget what lies behind us. We wallow in it. And we sometimes neglect to get up and strain forward in our faith. We can slide toward immaturity.

So we ought to be mindful of ourselves. And we ought to consider our love for God. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Ah, another clue for the mature. This wisdom of God – not discernible to the rulers of this age – is for those who “love him.” What do we love?

Chris

Dear church,

Paul opened his letter to the church in Corinth with an admonition: Be united. It seems cliques had formed in the church. There were divisions within it as some members expressed allegiance to different leaders within the church – to Paul, to Apollos, to Peter, to Christ.

Some claimed, “I follow Paul.” This makes sense. Paul founded the church. Paul came to Corinth, a powerful center of trade in the Mediterranean world, and began the work of evangelism. He came alone to this pagan city that worshipped Greek gods. But Paul wasn’t alone for long. His work bore fruit (Acts 18:1-18).

A church was started. And it is no wonder why some of the members there said, “I follow Paul.” They owed their eternal life to this itinerant preacher from Tarsus. They had been living in the darkness of sin and death and then suddenly saw the light of salvation in the gospel and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All of this was thanks to Paul.

And so they said, “I follow Paul.” But why would they say this? There was no reason to make a declaration like that unless others were saying something different. And others were doing just that. Some claimed, “I follow Apollos” – the gifted preacher from Alexandria. Some claimed, “I follow Cephas (Peter)” – the disciple of Jesus and the “rock” of the church.

And some claimed, “I follow Christ.” I suppose this was their way of saying, “Who needs to follow human leadership anyway? We’ll just go straight to Jesus himself. He’ll tell us what to do!” That’s a fine-sounding argument, but Paul rejected this clique as no better than the others.

There was something wrong with all of this. These divisions in the church had spawned disunity. The brothers and sisters were not joined in one mind. They were separating from each other in various ways – much like our Protestant denominations have done since the 16th century and much like the Catholic and Orthodox churches have done since the 11th century.

Schism can be our way as Christians. And Paul found something wrong with all of this.

I wonder whether the problem lay in the very claims being made: “I follow Paul.” “I follow Apollos.” “I follow Cephas.” “I follow Christ.”

Maybe the problem is in the “I” that forms the foundation of these statements. The Corinthians had found something to distinguish themselves as individuals from other individuals in the church. The Corinthians had put their individual preferences over the church itself. So much of this mirrors the problems that threatened the Roman church that we just examined (Romans 14:1-15:7). Something was blocking church harmony.

At the end of the day, it was pride. Pride steps in when disagreements arise. Pride plays defense. It is not possible, we say, that we could be wrong. And so we counterattack. For the Corinthians, their defensive measures were to claim allegiance to a higher authority – an authority that enabled them to put distance between themselves and others in the church. And by doing so, they risked fracturing the church itself. Even those who proudly claimed allegiance to “Christ” risked damaging the very family he came to create.

Instead of pride and argumentation, Christians are called to gratitude. Paul said, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” This comes from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. Here’s the full quote from Jeremiah 9:23-24:

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

In the church sometimes, we do disagree about things. Some of those things are frivolous, and some of them are quite serious. The error creeps in when we allow these things to fracture the body unnecessarily. The error creeps in when we boast in things that we have acquired – wisdom, might, riches – instead of in the fact we worship a loving, just, and righteous God.

We can boast about our own ideas (our really good ideas) rather than in the Christ who miraculously brought together this ragtag group of believers in the mountains.

Chris